Byzantium Infected Box Set

by James Mullins

  Standing on either side of the door were two Imperial Guardsmen. Both wore the same plate mail as the two guards that were posted to their waiting room. Before they advanced any further the chamberlain turned and said, “When you are admitted to the imperial audience chamber you will each take one step forward and prostrate yourselves.”

  “How do we do that?” Athos asked nervously.

  The chamberlain’s eyes narrowed and he looked down his nose at Athos as he sighed irritably and said, “You will drop to your knees and place your forehead on the floor. You may only rise when the Emperor commands you to do so. Understood?”

  Athos, taken aback by the chamberlain’s harsh tone, nodded mutely. The chamberlain’s eyes narrowed again and he added, “If you fail to do this correctly, you could lose your head on the spot. I suggest you get this right, boy.”

  Without waiting for a response, the chamberlain turned around and nodded to the guards standing on either side of the door. They each grasped a brass ring, and pulled the large brass plated doors open. The room in front of them was long. At least one hundred feet long. To either side high up on the left and right walls, were large windows that let sunlight into the chamber. The walls of the audience chamber were adorned with tapestries that depicted Emperor Heraclius’ many victories over the Persians. Each tapestry showed a scene of battle. At the bottom in gold letters set on a red background was the name of the battle.

  Lining the central walkway were dozens of members of the Imperial Court. Their clothing and feet created a rustling noise as they collectively turned to face the men standing in the doorway. As Constan scanned the crowd of well-dressed nobility he didn’t see anyone he recognized. Each of these individuals had an amulet denoting their station or position within the Imperial Court. The group was extremely diverse in composition and encompassed citizens from all corners of the Empire.

  Athos had never seen such an ostentatious demonstration of wealth. He slowly panned his eyes over the occupants of the audience chamber. His eyes took in the myriad of colorful silken robes that adorned the members of the court. He noticed, unlike most in the room, that those closest to the throne, had varying degrees of purple in their clothing. The purple content ranged from a thin stripe of perhaps one inch on the trim of their robe, to a stripe of three inches thick for those situated closest to the Emperor.

  At the end of the audience chamber sat Emperor Heraclius on a raised golden throne. He was a tall man, with a long grey flowing beard that reached down to the middle of his chest. His skin was swarthy and leathery in appearance. The lines of many years of campaigning under the harsh sun of the desert gave his face a craggy appearance underneath his impressive beard. Purple silken robes hung loosely on his frame. These robes were fastened together by a belt of gold crafted to resemble the skin of a snake. Set in the buckle of the belt was two blood red rubies to represent the serpent’s eyes, two opals depicting its nose holes, and two diamonds shaped to resemble fangs. Unlike most members of the court whose display of wealth bordered on the garish, he wore only a single ring on his left ring finger. The imperial signet.

  His chest was adored with a large golden amulet with the largest diamond that Constan and Athos had ever seen set into it. The diamond, about the size of Athos’ fist, reflected the sunlight pouring into the room from the windows in a brilliant display of colors. In his left hand he held a golden scepter that was topped by a cross. His head was crowned with a thick circlet of gold that was adored with many precious gem stones and diamonds. Strings of pearls were attached to the lower rim of the crown. Each string of pearls, hung down precisely four inches all around his head, shrouding his thinning gray hair in a ring of white stones.

  Standing to the left of the throne was a man whose mere sight sent Constan’s blood a boil, General Vahan He thought bitterly to himself.

  As instructed Constan and Athos, took one step into the throne room, and dropped to their knees. As they each lowered their foreheads to the floor, the chamberlain bowed low and announced them, “My Lord Heraclius Emperor of the Romans, may I present Tourmarches Constan of the 5th Parthica, and his lone surviving Kentarches Athos.”

  Emperor Heraclius’ eyes bored into the two prostrate men. Several long moments passed as the Emperor studied them. Finally, he cleared his throat loudly and then said, “You may stand and approach.” The deep baritone of the Emperor’s voice filled the chamber and seemed to come from all directions simultaneously.

  The chamberlain looked over his left shoulder and hissed, “Rise, but keep your head bowed. Only look one foot in front of your feet to walk.”

  Both men rose nervously to their feet and started walking as the chamberlain had instructed. When they drew within five feet of the first step that lead up to the throne, he held out his hand behind him to signal them to stop.

  Both Constan and Athos did as indicated. They kept their heads bowed for several moments as Emperor Heraclius once again studied them. Let us get on with it already, Constan thought to himself.

  Athos, too busy fighting an internal battle not to show his fear outwardly, hardly noticed the passage of time. Despite all of the recent challenges he faced, this new one, standing in front of the Emperor to face judgement, petrified him. Similar to his experience on the Tyre road, when the Imperial Kataphractoi was charging them, his bladder made its presence known. Athos silently prayed, Please Lord God, give me the fortitude not to piss myself in front of the Emperor. Lord God, imbue me with the strength needed to face this new challenge.

  Unexpectedly, Athos felt his nerves still and a steely resolve settle over him. The image of Nikas fingering his cat-o-nine tails whip popped into his mind and smiled at him. Athos thought to himself, Thanks Nikas, even in death the mere thought of you studies my nerves. Would that you were here in my place. The image of Nikas smiled at him in his mind, but remained silent. I don’t suppose I could injure my head on something again to bring Nikas back to life in my thoughts? As his mind considered this line of reasoning, his thoughts drifted back to Athea, and the hurt he caused her the last time Nikas was alive in his thoughts.

  The Emperor lifted his gaze from the two men, turned it to the chamberlain and said in a deep baritone voice, “Get on with it Vitalis.”

  Vitalis turned around and faced Constan and Athos, “Tourmarches Constan, and Kentarches Athos, both of the late 5th Parthica. You stand accused of cowardice in the face of the enemy, and failure to defend the Emperor’s City of Damascus from the Scourge of the Damned.”

  Constan stiffened at the accusation and stole a glance at General Vahan. The man stared back at Constan, a confident smirk on his face. Vitalis turned and faced the two accused men, “What say you to the charges leveled against you?”

  Constan took a deep breath, raised his eyes, and met Vitalis’ gaze, “’tis not easy to say anything without knowing the particulars of what we’re being accused of.”

  For the first time since they entered the throne room, Emperor Heraclius smiled, “Quite right Tourmarches. General Vahan. Please explain the charges that you bring against the accused.”

  Vahan cleared his throat loudly and said, “At the battle of Yarmuk the 5th Parthica disintegrated in to a rabble and was destroyed. If not for my benevolent rescue of your remaining members, you would not have survived the hour thanks to your incompetence. Later in the battle when things grew desperate, you broke and ran in the face of the enemy. If not for my quick thinking in organizing our Emperor’s Tagmata into a fighting withdrawal in the face of your cowardice all would have been lost.”

  General Vahan fell silent. Several moments passed as Constan digested his words. Vitalis broke the silence and asked, “What say you Tourmarches?”

  Constan’s faced turned a deep crimson in color as he fought to control the anger welling up inside of him, “’tis all a bunch of bloody bollocks!” Constan pointed at General Vahan and said, “He ordered us to hold formation in the face of a sandstorm on exposed ground. He wanted to make sure the army looked
impressive when the Tourma from Palestinia showed up to the rendezvous. His sodden ego left us exposed when the damned attacked.”

  General Vahan looked down at Constan and smiled. His face contorted into a condescending sneer, “If not for my ego as you put it, the army would not have been in formation when the damned attacked.”

  Constan rolled his eyes and said, “True, but if ye had put the skirmishes into place, we would have had warning of the approach of the enemy. Instead, they came out of nowhere, without warning, and swept away each of the Syrian Tourma in short order.”

  “There was no reason to set a skirmish line, as I didn’t have any reports of the enemy nearby.” Vahan replied.

  “We had a thousand light horse. Did ye not think to send some of them to find the enemy? We were in the same province with them after all. How did ye miss seeing one hundred thousand of the damned as they snuck up on your bloody doorstep?” Constan said.

  “I had sent the light horse out to scout.” General Vahan shot back.

  Constan nodded, “Aye, ye did. Ye sent them to the east bank of the Jordan, and on the other side of the hill that separated the river valley where your army was and the rest of Palestinia province. Ye wanted to ensure that if the Palestinia Tourma had strayed, that the scouts would locate them, and get them onto the right path so that they would rendezvous with your army. Ye wanted to ensure that they would approach from the correct direction so that the little show ye made us drill for days would be most effective. In other words, ye sent no scouts ahead to see what was in front of ye army!”

  General Vahan bristled at Constan’s accusation, “What’s your point? I still had the army lined up in formation ready to face the enemy when they arrived.”

  Constan laughed, “Aye ye did. Bloody stroke of luck that was. If not for ye ego, your incompetence would have gotten us all killed instead of just most of us.”

  The onlookers burst into laughter as General Vahan opened his mouth to retort. He was forced to look on sheepishly as the court shook with laughter. Emperor Heraclius gave General Vahan a side long glance as the man’s face reddened.

  Vitalis banged the bottom of his staff onto the floor. The sound of the wood, echoed throughout the room, “Order, we must have order!” As the laughter faded away, Vitalis turned to General Vahan, and said, “Your response General?”

  Vahan smiled predatorily, “I was just trying to ensure that the Palestinia Tourma received an uplifting greeting upon their arrival. This was the first time since the institution of the land reforms and the new Thema system that a Thematic army was operating in concert with the Imperial Tagmata. I wanted to show everyone that provincial troops under the Emperor’s new structure could perform as professionally as the Imperial Tagmata.” He paused and turned to face Constan before continuing, “You’ve done a fine job trying to misdirect this discussion. There were political considerations that you did not understand in play on that day. While I laude you for your logic and effective argument. There is still the matter of your failure to maintain your line, and your later cowardice to discuss.”

  Constan immediately fired back, “Aye, if by failure to maintain our line ye mean that both Tourma on our left were swept away due to the complete surprise ye set us up for and unique nature of the enemy. That we were then completely surrounded, and the 2nd Kentarchia was forced back. Then aye, we did indeed fail to maintain our line in the face of a hundred thousand of the damned, whilst ye, and the Imperial Tagmata looked on.”

  “I ordered the Kataphractoi in to rescue, you and your hapless Kentarchia, when it became obvious that you could not stand, nor could you extricate yourself from the situation.” General Vahan retorted.

  Constan laughed, “Let’s see you contain a hundred thousand of the damned with one hundred men. We were outnumbered a thousand to one! Our Kentarches, God rest his soul, fought us brilliantly to survive as long as we did. We were very grateful for the rescue that ye provided from that impossible situation. Why did ye not wheel the Tagmata and push the damned into the Jordan, when ye had the chance?”

  General Vahan grimaced at the question, “I did not want to risk, losing the Tagmata in the same way that the Syrian Tourma were lost. This was a new enemy that we did not understand, I elected to observe and gain valuable intelligence from which I was able to formulate a plan that preserved the Tagmata for subsequent battles.” General Vahan shifted his gaze to pointedly look down his nose at Constan, “I again applaud you for a masterful attempt at misdirection here today. This leaves us one more matter to discuss, your cowardice in the face of the enemy.”

  Constan fired back coolly, “What cowardice would that be General?”

  General Vahan smiled at Constan predatorily, “After I rearmed you and sent you into the line, you once again failed to hold the enemy. If not for my quick thinking in the face of your cowardice, then the Imperial Tagmata would have been lost.”

  Constan snorted at the accusation, “Sounds like your imagination has gotten the better of you Vahan.”

  Vitalis held up his hand and said in a loud voice, “Enough!” He turned to Athos and asked, “It seems the truth will be difficult to find amongst these two. Can you give us your version of events Kentarches?”

  Athos swallowed audibly and nodded, “I’ll try to do the best I can. At the time I was only a lowly Skutatoi commanded by my Dekanos Constan, and my Kentarches Nikas.”

  Athos paused to await a response, “Go on.” Vitalis said.

  Athos continued, “After the destruction of the Syrian Thematic Army, and our subsequent rescue by the Imperial Tagmata. General Vahan had the Imperial Tagmata arrayed in a rectangular formation atop a hill. He was slowly being forced to stretch out his lines as the damned tried to flow around them and into his rear. For reasons that I do not know, the head of the rectangle collapsed. The General acted quickly and ordered his Kataphractoi to charge the gap. This bought the precious seconds needed to deploy the remnants of the 5th Parthica, the only force left in reserve, into the gap to plug it.”

  Athos once again paused to give everyone a chance to ask questions. When none came again Vitalis said, “Go on.”

  Athos took a deep breath and continued, “We doubled timed it into the gap, and sealed the hole in the line. We were able to maintain the line for quite a while. Until we were betrayed and left to die.”

  “What do you mean by betrayed?” Vitalis asked.

  Athos pointed at the General and said, “He and the Imperial Tagmata withdrew without informing us of their plan. From our viewpoint it seems as if we were left to provide a distraction for the damned while they made their escape. In other words, the General sacrificed us, so that he could save his own skin.”

  “Liar!” Roared the General. The room broke out in pandemonium as everyone tried to speak at once.

  Vitalis once again was forced to bang his staff into the floor, and yell, “Order! Order I say!” After Vitalis brought the throne room back under control they continued.

  For the first time Emperor Heraclius addressed Constan and Athos directly, “The story of your failure at Yarmuk seems to have been beyond your control and exaggerated. Thanks to the failure of your command structure to use the tools available to them to provide adequate warning. The Syrian Thema was surprised, and destroyed by overwhelming numbers. Out of nine thousand of my soldiers. Your Kentarchia alone, managed to maintain order and continue fighting in the face of hopeless odds. Your Kentarches is to be commended for fighting you so well. For the record that is being recorded by this trial, what was his name?”

  Athos met the Emperor’s gaze and said, “Nikas your imperial majesty. His names was Nikas.”

  The Emperor smiled and said, “Be it known that Nikas, Kentarches of the 2nd Kentarchia of the 5th Parthica, died a hero in the service of his Emperor. I will have a coin struck in his honor commemorating the valiant stand of the 2nd Kentarchia commanded by Nikas at Yarmuk. Not since Thermopylae has so few, stood against so many.”

  The Emperor
paused for a moment and glared at General Vahan. The General visibly wilted under the gaze of the Emperor. Satisfied by the General’s reaction, Emperor Heraclius turned to Constan and said, “Let us now discuss your failure to hold my City of Damascus. Can you explain the events leading up to the loss of the city?”

  Constan’s mouth immediately went dry and he swallowed hard, “Aye your majesty. As you are likely aware from Governor Maurice’s reports, we were able to raise about a thousand recruits from the local populace, and four hundred from the vigils, the city guardsmen. In order to keep the peace, I took on the vigils’ commander as my second in command.”

  As Constan spoke Emperor Heraclius began to drum his fingers impatiently on the arm rest of his throne, “Yes, yes, I’m familiar with the details. Pray that you spare me from any further ones and tell me of the battle. We never received any reports as to the amount of the damned you faced and the outcome of the battle.”

  Constan nodded nervously as sweat broke out on his brow, “On the night of September 28th while I was standing on the battlements with Athos, one of our Persian scouts rode in unexpectedly. We met them at the gate and the man reported that a horde had been sighted. I immediately ordered a mobilization of all our forces, quietly of course so as not to alert the damned, in the event they might still pass us by.”

  Emperor Heraclius held up his right hand and asked, “What do you mean by quietly? It’s been my experience that mobilization involves many horns, and church bells.”

  Constan smiled and nodded, “Aye, it does indeed majesty. With the damned, if ye create a lot of noise.” He shot General Vahan a quick sidelong glance as he spoke, “Such as a performance in which say forty thousand men bang on their shields with their Spathas, the blowing of horns, or the ringing of church bells, ye end up drawing in every damned within a forty mile radius. In other words, you contribute to creating the very thing that is likely to destroy you, a damned horde.”